Back in 1979 the leaders of the original Verbo Church in Guatemala City voiced their concern about the fact that while we believed and taught the absolute necessity of following God’s plan for our lives as disciples, we were sending our children to secular schools where many of the moral, ethical and even scientific values being taught were contrary to our understanding of God’s Word.

CASA BERNABÉ—Primary school children at the Casa Bernabé orphanage in Guatemala (above) have their own school on the grounds. In Managua and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, the children attend nearby Verbo schools.

The Team Takes Action
We had had this discussion many times before but this time we decided to do something: Within a few months we started a school with about 70 grade school students and a former  Undersecretary of the Guatemala Department of Education as principal.  

We eventually settled on a curriculum based on the seven major Bible principles  of sowing and reaping, form and power, Christian character,  stewardship, unity and union, individuality, self-government. The response from parents from various churches was so strong that within three years the Verbo School was serving children from kindergarten through high school. Each year the congregation, parents of students, and donors committed to Christian education raised the money to pay the very high initial costs of starting such a broad outreach.

OLD TIME’S SAKE—These children are in one of the classes of the first Verbo School over 30 years ago. Their teacher is now a Doctor of Education and a consultant on education in developing nations.

Educational System Grows
That first school was the foundation for what is now an educational system that reaches thousands of students from pre-kinder through high school vocational training, plus a university with over 13 thousand students in over 70 facilities—and that’s just in Guatemala. There are Verbo schools in Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and soon in Brazil.  

In November, high school science students from one of the Guatemalan Verbo schools achieved a fourth place victory in an international robotics competition in Orlando, Florida, that included student teams from  First World countries like Germany, Japan and the United States.  Verbo’s commitment is to prepare children to bring the Kingdom of God to every human discipline,—and to do it well.